Relayblogger

I haven’t been following the meta bloggers that much since last summer. There are a couple of them still on my bloglines feed list though.

On the quest to restart this blog I went to john chow (who dropped out of my feed list long ago) to find out what a money making blog looks like nowadays. I guess he still makes some money but to me his site looks way to desperate to be taken serious.

Then I went to problogger (that I normally follow through bloglines) and to my dismay found it equally ‘in my face’.

So, is that the way to go for a startup blog in an over crowded niche? I don’t think so.

One could guess that most people that follow them regularly use their RSS feeds so they need to throw lots of ads on the emerging internet entrepreneurs before they get involved enough to discard all ads.

I think we will never know, in the fight for readers in a small niche I guess full disclosure is not always a good thing.

by: Theo Swan

When working with internet marketing, making websites designed to generate affiliate commission, it is sometimes difficult to find new niches to make websites about. Trying to find a niche with competitive commissions, but without the following fierce competition is of course hard, but it is not at all impossible.

One popular way of making money online is by using small websites designed only with adsense – or any other contextual advertisement – in mind. These sites – often referred to as mini- or micro-sites - are made to target unusual search phrases, often in highly competitive niches. This way, they can reach fairly high search engine rankings without to much work. The terms targeted will not bring many visitors, but the traffic it does bring will be highly targeted, thus converting well.

When using contextual ads – as with any form of paid-per-click programs – the main objective is to make visitors click the ads, they do not necessarily have to end up buying anything. That’s for the webmaster buying the clicks to worry about.

When working with pay per sale affiliate programs, one needs to take a different approach. Most affiliate programs operate by a pay per sale model, making it essential to send good traffic their way, i.e. visitors who will actually buy the products promoted.

Compared to a PPC model, this sure is far more work, but the upside is huge. Working in a similar way as with contextual ad websites, you can easily target odd search terms in highly profitable niches, thus receiving search engine visitors of good quality. You might not get that many visitors, but if you are working with the right keywords, many of them will be searching for exactly what you are offering.

There are a lot of online tools to aid you when looking for a niche with good potential revenue, but a fast and easy way to get a grasp of a niche is to do a few searches on google. Looking at the number of results for any given search term will give you an idea of the competition. Mostly this is closely related to the potential profit, as more money naturally attracts more competitors.

Click a few of the sponsored ads, to see what landing pages people are using when buying traffic on that keyword. Remember people are paying to have a visitor see these landing pages, so in most cases they are very well converting, making them excellent to study before you make a website in the same niche.

To fully take advantage of the visitors you send to an affiliate program, you should find a program offering residual commission. This way, you will not only get a commission on the first sale, but get a commission of all future sales to this customer. In a way, it’s your customer.

Considering the limited amount of visitors expected, another important factor to consider before joining an affiliate program is their promotional material. Are you looking for text links only, or are you looking for graphics for banner advertising on your page? If you can find an affiliate program in your niche, offering affiliate links to specific products rather than the main page, it will make it much easier to target your visitors better. If you are getting visitors using the same search term, it’s not hard to find a specific product to present them with.

Many websites offer free stuff and/or an initial discount when a new customer joins them. Make sure you are using all the promotions available to you when you join and promote your affiliate program - preferably found at http://www.affiliateranker.com/directory

About The Author

Theo Swan - Writing about affiliate marketing and how to make your website stand out. Read more about converting traffic, or find a new program, at http://www.affiliateranker.com

By Lewis Low

A blog is an online version of diary where people write and display almost anything - their opinions, photos, jokes, thoughts for the day and more. People also share stories about their pets, their passion for soccer, stamps… the limit is only your imagination!

In the last few years, blogging has emerged to become a much more meaningful activity than simply maintaining a personal diary. People use it to advertise their products and services, in fact, quite a number of companies even create their online presence by using a blog instead of a website.

Create Your Own Blog

Starting a blog is free. You can create one at blogger dot com- a free service from Google Inc. You don’t need to register a domain name or buy hosting.

When you sign up at Blogger, everything happens online. Your blog will be hosted by Blogger and you get an URL like http://yourdomain.blogspot.com. You simply log in to your account and start to write.

This is much easier and cheaper than buying your own domain and hosting, then hiring someone to do the web design, writing and coding.

Another free blogging service available online is WordPress which is also very popular and easy to use. WordPress supports more features than Blogger while allowing you to customize your blog with various plug-in. You can check it out at http://wordpress.org

Monetize Your Blog

While blogging for your own interest, you can in fact maximize the potential of your blog for many marketing or commercial purposes.

The quickest and easiest way to turn a blog into a money-making enterprise is to include advertising on your blog. This can be done with contextual ad programs like Adsense - an advertising program by Google. Basically, you get paid when people click on the ads displayed on your website or blog. Google Adsense program is free to sign up. You can visit http://www.google.com/adsense to learn more about the rules and guidelines of the program. Other Adsense type ads that you can use for blog monetizing are SearchFeed, AdBrite, and Yahoo’s Publisher’s Network (YPN).

Affiliate program is another potential way to make money blogging. By focusing on the subject of your blog post, you can promote relevant products from cost per sale affiliate programs like ClickBank and Amazon. You can write a review about the product or service with your affiliate links embedded inside so you get the commission whenever a sale is made.

Boost Your Blog Traffic

Blogs are quickly indexed by search engines, but you need to update it regularly. Search engines love fresh content and regular update will ensure that your website is indexed and ranked high up as well. The higher up it appears, the more traffic will come to your site, which means more sales. You can actively participate in forums discussion or post comments on other blogs to get more link back traffic.

Whether you use your blog for fun or for work, remember that it’s a highly potential tool any which way. So what are you waiting for? Start blogging away right now!

Lewis Low is the founding editor of OnlineBizPromo.com For more Practical Online Business Ideas and Work-From-Home Opportunities, visit his Work-At-Home directory at http://www.OnlineBizPromo.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lewis_Low

By Samuel Ng

There are just so many ways of making money from your wordpress blogs, it’s impossible to name everything in detail so you’ll be shown the overall ideas that most people do to monetize their wordpress blogs.

First thing that everyone can think of is Google AdSense. Simply by posting relevant topics within your blog & putting up AdSense ads, you can get paid when someone clicks on your AdSense ads.

Some people may not like doing AdSense or they find that AdSense didn’t pay them too well, so they switched over to Auction Ads. Auction Ads display live auctions based on the keywords you add into the system. You get paid, each time someone bids on an auction item after clicking on your ad.

Affiliate marketing would be another popular way to make money from your blogs. It’s simply selling some else’s product for a commission. A truly win-win-win situation for merchant, affiliate & buyer.

Selling your products & services. Just treat your blog as an advertising platform & all the ads focus on selling your own products & services.

Selling text links. There are many webmasters willing to pay for traffic to their websites or blogs. All you have to do is allow them to put a link on your blog & they pay you monthly. If you want it to be totally hassle free, you can sign up through a text link ad network.

Selling advertising. This can be a very steady source of income if you can get sponsors who are interested in reaching your readers with their products & services.

These are the most direct ways to earn money from your blogs, so take your pick & choose the one that suits you & your industry the most.

For more tips & tricks on optimizing your wordpress blogs for more profits, check out Auto Blogging Income System.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samuel_Ng

by: Juliette Lee

Many people have taken the plunge and joined the world of affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing allows you to work for yourself and put your skills, hard work and independence together for you. Success in any business will not happen over night. It still takes time and effort to get your affiliate marketing scheme up and running. However, if you are persistent, determined and willing to give it your all, affiliate marketing can be the perfect career opportunity for you.

To become the so called super affiliate, you should really follow the advice of other successful affiliates. They have been through what you are and know what they are talking about. One of the first pieces of advice they give is to concentrate on a niche. Don’t try to sell everything but the kitchen sink. Concentrate on one thing in the early days. Work out the best way to sell it and get going. Once you have some strategies worked out you can always expand.

One you have built up a store house of affiliates, you need to know how to promote. Search engine and the web is usually the best way. If you are confident then you could try pay per click. However, make sure you understand this well. Many affiliates have gone for is option only to find that their profits have been eaten up.

You should take time to know your product and who you are aiming it for. When you understand both well you begin to build up credibility. People will begin to trust you and what you offer. They will feel much better about giving their business over to you rather than others. This will result in higher sales revenue for you and a much stronger business.

Don’t be afraid to diversify. Sign up with more than one merchant. Beware of any merchant that wants you to sign up with them exclusively. By using several merchants you get much more exposure. You are also protecting your self if one merchant goes under or does not pay.

Keep on top of current trends in the market. Be prepared to change if you need to. The world of internet marketing is continually changing. By staying flexible and having a willingness to change you can make these changes work for you rather than against you. Remember, what was working last month may not be this month.

Finally, don’t give up. It is true that many of these affiliate marketing schemes do fail. However, the reason isn’t due to poor products or ideas. It is because people give up way too soon. It takes time to build any business. Just keep at it. Try to do something everyday to promote your business. If you keep it up you will eventually start to see results.

Affiliate marketing is a great way to make money and work for yourself. You can put your skills and creative knowledge to work for you and not others. Affiliate marketing does take work. You need to build it up like any other business. However, if you stick to the advice in this article and don’t give up, you’ll soon find that your business is booming. Affiliate marketing is a great career opportunity. With hard work and determination you will be well on your way to becoming the super affiliate.

About The Author

Juliette Lee is the editor and CEO of http://www.MyAudioCompanion.com. To find the best audio book titles, please visit http://www.MyAudioCompanion.com

by: Ingrid Nirupama Grzeskowiak

Life is constantly changing. Once in a while there are major shifts happening in our personal lives, in business and our environments. After 12 months of intense research Rich Schefren has come up with a new doctrine called

The Attention Age (Part I)

He is referring to a major change in the marketplace and on the internet which will have great effects on how to be successful in business now and in the near future. Everybody who knows Rich can tell that he is one of the most outstanding business coaches and entrepreneurs available with a long list of people he has helped to create a successful business within a few months. Some well known internet gurus out there today have been asking for his advice. What I like about Rich is his professionality, his clear cut mind penetrating like an arrow, his creativity and his utter commitment to helping people change their lives to the better.

This is one of the reasons I´m writing about his new doctrine “The Attention Age”. A few days ago you might have taken the chance to listen to an interview with Rich Schefren who answered questions and laid out his new vision of internet marketing for Jay Abraham.

Major Shift In Online Marketing

After 12 months of intense research Rich Schefren points out that a general change is taking place in online marketing.As someone who likes to be ahead of the crowd he even makes predictions about what is going to happen in online marketing in the near future.

The Attention Age refers to a new era of how to deal with information. Everybody who has been out in the internet is aware of the fact that we are overwhelmed with information. We receive offers, advertisements daily in our mailboxes, there are newspapers, magazines, tons of articles, forums, other media about almost everything a human brain can come up with.

On the other hand everyone of us is fully engaged doing his job, spending time with his family, friends, hobbies and having little or no spare time left. What is it you choose to do with this little time you might have left? Are you reading your junk mail or exploring the internet for some decent business opportunity? Presumably not.

Would you agree with me that the following statements are true?

1. Most of the people doing business on the internet have problems with information overload.
2. Today time has been very valuable and squarce. Too many people have too little time.
3. Getting attention of potential customers is inevitable for making profits.
4. It has become much more difficult to get the attention of potential customers/members in the times of information overload.

I bet you do. If you own a website, are an internet marketer or even have a brick and mortar business you are certainly well aquainted with the need to advertise your products or opportunities. There are many carbon copies out there and maybe a few individuals who succeed to brand their company name because they thought of something original, something unique and also had the ability to present it as such. But what are the attention leveraging skills?

1. setting priorities
2. short term goals
3. how to deal with information
4. processing information (multitasking)
5. decision making
6. providing value
7. being in front of my customers

In times of information overload business owners need to prioritize their actions and campaigns. They have to watch the progress of their company by looking at the big picture. Rich talks about setting priorities in his “Online Manifesto”, downloaded by thousands of business owners, on his website strategic profits.com. When you are not clear about what comes first and is most important for your company´s progress, you can easily get distracted by all sorts of irrelevant information.

The big picture in mind you should always have some short term goals also to keep yourself motivated and track your progress. The ability to deal with lots of information separates the successful entrepreneur from the opportunity seeker.Today´s internet marketer has to develop the skills of distinguishing between important and unimportant information.The emphasis lies on the word “now”. Which information has some kind of value for my company now, not next week or in the future. You have to practice to scan much information for useful content in a short period of time.

The next step is to decide if the information has value for your business. Integration and processing of information is becoming one of the most challenging tasks in having an internet business today.

Developing and promoting your own product always keep in mind that it must provide value to the customer.

Branding your company or name in a unique way is a must in order to attract the right visitors, customers or clients. Provoking attention and continuously being in front of your customers are two of the most important skills an internet marketer today should concentrate on. The capacity of processing information and getting the attention of potential customers is directly related to success or failure in your business.

About The Author

Ingrid Nirupama Grzeskowiak contributes regularly with her thoughts and insights about various issues of human life. She has helped people solve their personal problems as a teacher and personal development coach in Europe; Nirupama owns a home business at http://www.Go4yourMoney.com

You are welcome to subscribe to her informative business newsletter and visit her business blog at http://Go4yourMoney.com/blog/

by: Daniel Moro

Google AdSense has been revolutionary in terms of providing a way for webmasters to earn revenue from their web sites, particularly for smaller businesses. But are there any good alternatives to Google AdSense?

It is not usually a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket, so you should identify several alternatives. By doing this you may even discover an alternative that is more lucrative for your site, and at the very least you will be prepared in case something happens to AdSense.

Let’s look at some of the best alternatives to Google AdSense advertisements on your web site.

Chitika

Instead of displaying the same old advertising units with text and image ads, Chitika provide active boxes that show targeted products from various manufacturers. Chitika boxes can even show an ad box containing a product alongside several competitors’ products.

Yahoo! Publisher Network

At the time of writing this Yahoo! Publisher Network is still in Beta mode but once it is fully released it should be a viable alternative to Google AdSense. As with AdSense you can provide your web visitors with contextual ads. Yahoo conveniently offers four ways to receive payment including PayPal. That will be welcomed by many international webmasters who grow old while waiting for US checks to arrive and then get cleared through their banks.

Sell Advertising Spots

This is a traditional alternative, but it is still a good one. If you have a strong customer base you should be able to find advertisers to purchase advertising spots on your web site. You can sell spots by the month and offer a discounted option for six and twelve months.

Write Affiliate Advertisements

If you don’t want to spend time trying to attract traditional advertisers you can make your own ads for affiliate products. Check out the thousands of products at ClickBank or Commission Junction. Select several products that closely match your visitors’ interests. Now write affiliate ads, or use image ads with your own affiliate link.

CBprosense

If you don’t want to manually write your own affiliate ads for ClickBank products then you could consider automating the process with CBprosense. It is a tool that will spider your site, analyze its content and then deliver a list of relevant links to the best performing products in the ClickBank marketplace.

These are five of the best alternatives to Google AdSense advertising. There are many more and several that promise to deliver contextual ads. However I suggest that whenever you are considering an alternative that promises contextual ads, do a quick check through your favorite search engine or webmaster forum to see if anyone is actually making any revenue by using their service. It is one thing to promise the technology, and another altogether to have sufficient advertisers to constantly deliver appropriate ads to your site.

About The Author

Daniel Moro has been successfully building online businesses for ten years. Get more information on these Google AdSense alternatives and download a free report on ‘10 Remarkably Effective Traffic Building Techniques’ at http://www.DanielMoro.com/AdsenseAlternatives.htm

According to TechCrunch Shoppero launched in Germany two months ago and are already among the top 3000 sites in Germany.

Shoppero is a mix between a shopping site and a community. It is possible to link directly to products, making it very similar to an affiliate sale, and advertise on a blog with Shopperos widget.

A blogger making money from Shoppero would 20% in commission for direct sales and 60% in commission for advertising using their widget. There is also some money to be made from writing reviews. I didn’t really understand if that was based on generated traffic or if it the content that is paid for.

This seems to be nice train to catch. I assume this is the kind of community it pays well to be in on from the beginning.

The savings are usually not as big as they seem at first glance since home made food also costs money but they are still substancial. Living in Stockholm Sweden it is not unrealistic to save $5 a day. That’s about $100 a month you can spend of fun things instead of bad food.

Apart from saving a lot of money per year you will probably make better food at home than the one you can eat at the lunch restaurant.

Since it’s faster to heat your own food than standing in line at a crowded restaurant you will also save a lot of time.At my work I can go home earlier if I take a shorter lunch brake. If you do not have flexible working hours that half hour each day is well spent taking a brisk walk. That is free and good exercise. If you’re not the moving type, but a regular reader of this blog the saved time is a splendid opportunity to write for your blog. Bring pen and paper from home so that there is no ground for discussions of making private money with company resources.

Since this blog is new and lacks a decent page rank the traffic based revenue opportunities are quite limited. Even if I have a high click through rate on contextual ads and affiliate links the absolute numbers are low.

I have found that writing reviews for those review networks accepting low ranking blogs is the best initial monetizer. Since every review is also a post it will increase your search engine surface and generate more future traffic.

A big mistake I believe I made when writing my initial reviews is that I focused only on the requirements of the opportunity. If the requirement was 100 words I wrote 101 words and submitted the post without giving it a second thought.

Now that I have thought about it a little more I am a bit sorry I didn’t do more. Future advertisers will read those reviews and only see some words surrounding the advertisers link. My uninspired writing made the reviews look more like bought links than real reviews. By writing good reviews the price will be higher than other blogs with the same page ranking. The reviews will be more than just paid links.